Embedded devices such as mobile phones, including Android, Apple and Samsung phones, are often equipped with miniature camera modules. These miniature camera modules typically include only a single fixed-focus lens and an image sensor. Some of these devices have software applications downloaded or otherwise stored on them that permit limited choices in pre-capture camera settings, such as exposure duration and flash setting, and some provide limited post-capture image editing capabilities designed to compensate for the inadequacy of the built-in optics. Image processing software is however incapable of providing real images of objects that are too close or too far from the device, or of scenes including multiple objects that require greater depths of field in order to capture them without intolerable amounts of defocus blur or of scenes with moving objects without excessive motion-related blur, among other imaging issues. It is therefore desired to be able to supplement the built-in optics of a miniature camera-enabled embedded device with one or more additional lenses or other optics.
Auxiliary lenses for mobile smartphones with camera modules are typically clipped onto the smartphone. These clip-on lenses put mechanical stresses on the smartphone directly along the optical path of the camera modules that can result in distortional stresses that can mechanically weaken the device and can distort the optical quality of captured images. Clip-on lenses are also unstable and often move laterally when smartphone precapture settings are being adjusted, during image capture and when the smartphone is being temporarily stored in a bag or pocket or on a table top. It is desired to have a way to attach an auxiliary lens to a mobile device in stable alignment with the optics of the built-in camera module.
Smartphones are used for capturing digital images in a variety of situations. In the past, a person operating a camera could not be in the picture because of the unwieldy nature of the camera and the camera-object distances typically involved in capturing an entire scene that may include multiple persons and perhaps background buildings or other objects. Some conventional cameras include a built-in delay to allow the camera operator to quickly duck into the scene that is based on a predetermined time duration or that uses face recognition techniques wherein image capture awaits a smiling camera operator to enter the scene. Either way, it is difficult to spontaneously, stably and accurately position and direct a camera to capture a picture without being held by a human operator. Today, “selfies” are more commonly made possible because smartphones and other mobile devices with built-in miniature camera modules are permit front-side display of the precapture image and these mobile devices are typically lightweight enough to hold in one hand while an image is captured. Nonetheless, it is desired to be able to more easily handle a mobile device during a one-handed image capture.